Process of making sticker fastenings



A. H. SWETT.

PROCESS 0F MAKING STICKER FASTENINGS.

APPLICATION man 1UNE19. 1920. RENEwED 1350.24.1921.

Patented Feb. 14, 1922.'

' n @for uaiTED .sTATEs f PATENT OFFICE.

ARTH'R H. SWE'IT, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN TAG COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

PROCESS OF MAKING STICKER FASTENINGS.

Specication of Letters Patent. Patented Feb. 14, 1922.

Application led .Tune 19, 1920, Serial No. 390,085. lRenewed. December 24, 1921. Serial No. 524,737.

To ZZ `iii/"10m it may concern.'

Be it known thatl, ARTHUR H. SWETT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Process of Making` Sticker F astenings, of which the following is a specification. y

rl`l1e object of the present invention is to produce by continuous process a sticker fastening such as that shown and described and claimed in my Patent No. 1,309,492 issued July 8, 1919. As set forth in saidpatent this is a complete self-contained article so constructed as to provide for ready separability in order that the envelope or package to which it is applied may be opened and its contents inspected and again closed, the separable parts of the fastening being reengaged and secured. The chief advantage of the article is that it does away with the necessity for manipulating any fasteningdevices when it is originally applied to the envelope or package, this being of partcular importance where metal is employed because of its relieving against the bad effects caused by constant long continued fingering of metallic clips. My. present invention provides for expeditiously turning out the complete 4product by the practice of a series of steps which convert a gummed web of paper and a reinforcing paper strip and a metal strip into sticker fastenings each complete in itself and ready for application to an envelope or a package with separable parts already interlocked and clamped and so requiring no manipulation whatever, the sealing or securing ofthe envelope or package in closed condition being accomplished by merely moistening the gummed portions of the fastening and pressing it upon the envelope or package.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate the process Fig. l Shows in diagrammatic fashion a series of instrumentalities which may beemployed for 'mechanically executing the successive steps of the process; Fig. 2 represents a stretch of the pieces of material which are operated upon by said instrumentalities, viewed from what would-be the upper side as the same passes' through the machine, different operations performed upon said materials being indicated progres-A sively by the differing conditions along the stretch; Fig. 3 represents the same thing looked at edgewise; Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7 are cross-sections thereof on lines correspondingly numbered in Fig. 2; and Fig. 8 represents the completed article looked at from the opposite side to that seen in Fig. 2 which shows the severed article at the righthand end.

Referring first toFig. 1 the numeral 9 designates a roll of paper web gummed on one side which will be the upper side as the web passes through the machine. This web. which is ordinarily comparatively heavy Manila paper, is conducted under and overV suitable guide rollers 10 and 11 and its under ungummed side is first presented to the type of a printing press indicated at 12. Here any desired printed matter may be impressed upon the web, for example thc words Open here as in Fig. 8. The web passes on between a pair of rollers 13. These rollers are suitably driven and they feed the web drawing it off the roll 9. They also function to apply a reinforcing strip along the center of the web.l The numeral 14 designates a roll of such strip which is ordinarily of relatively heavy paper in the nature of cardboard. The strip is carried under a guide roller 15 and over a moistening roller 16 turning in a small water tank 17., The strip then passes over another guide roller 18 and'down under the upper one of the two rollers 18. The latter serve to press the`moistened strip upon the gummed surface of the paper web causing it to adhere thereto, and said rollers at the same time-feed the strip and web forward. The next step inthe process is to slit the web and its reinforcing strip along a middle longitudinal line. Numeral 19 designates a pairof rotary splitting knives of disk form which operate to do this work. Reference may here be had to Figs. 2, 4 and 5, wherein both theuns'plit and the split state of the web may be seen.

The nextstep in the process consists in applying a staple across the division made by the splitting knives. A stapling mechanism is indicated at 20 in Fig. 1. In practice a Aplain narrow strip of thin metal is fed to this mechanism and cut olf and formed into a staple 21 which is driven through the reinforcing strip and web as illustrated most clearly by Fig. 6. The staple is preferably made with a short and a long leg and certain special formations are imparted to them which need not be described in detail. The web and strip with staples thus driven through them at comparatively short intervals pass on to a clinching mechanism indicated at 22, which operates to bend and clamp down the legs of the staple as best illustrated in Fig. 7. The final step consists in severing an appropriate length of the thus split and stapled web, cutting knives for such purpose being indicated at 23 in Fig. l, and in Fig. 2 a piece is shown cut off so as to include two of the staples. lt might of course include three or more of the staples, this being regulated by the particular use to which the article is to be put.

It will be seen that practice of the above described process results in the production of complete sticker fastenings in flat form ready for compact stacking for packing and shipping. Furthermore the article so produced is ready for application to the envelope or package by the simple act of moistening the gummed surfaces of the pieces on opposite sides of the reinforcements and pressing the fastening upon the envelope or package, or of course as a further manufacturing procedure one such gummed piece can be moistened and the fastening stuck to the container so that the latter may be shipped out already equipped with its fastening. For example in the case of envelopes the fastening Would be stuck to the flap and then in the establishmentusing the envelope to send out mail matter the only thing necessary to be done would be to moisten the other piece and stick it to the body of the envelope. Added to the advantage of supplying a form of fastening which requires nomanipulation of the separable parts in the original application, it should be noted that the practice of this process has the further advantage of producing a fastening With metallic parts mechanically clinched or clamped down so that the maximum of flatness and smoothness is attained which not only makes for the utmost compactness in packing the fasteners for shipment and storage but also ensures against protruding edges to catch on neighboring fastenings or on other objects, and these characteristics are of moment also when the fastenings have been applied to envelopes and packages, besides which the mechanical clamping ensures the greatest security of the closure.` A slight deflection of the ends of the legs or tongues of the metal clip or staple is illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7. The purpose of this is to facilitate bending up of one of the stapletongues. Its slightly out-turned extremity permits of insertion of ones thumbnail to obtain a purchase on the tongue for bending it out When the envelope or package is to be opened. The other tongue is formed with a hump at its end to guard the out-turned end of the first-mentioned tongue so that the edge of the latter will not be exposed in a manner to catch on other objects. For the same reason the end of this tongue is rounded and the end of the other tongue is correspondingly made concave. The one tongue is made longer than the other so that it will cross the line of division between the reinforced flaps of the sticker pieces and that much more stily clamp them together.

I claim:

1. Process of producing sticker fastenings consisting in splitting a gummed web along a central line and stapling across the split at intervals.

2. Process of producing sticker fastenings consisting ih applying a central reinforcing strip to a gummed web, splitting the same centrally of said strip, and stapling across the split at intervals.

Process of producing sticker fastenings consisting in splittin a gummed web along a central line, stapling across the split at intervals, and severing a transverse section of the Web carrying one or. more staples.

4. Process of producing sticker fastenings consisting in splitting a gummed web along a central reinforced area, stapling across the split at intervals, and severing a transverse section of the web.

5. Process of producing sticker fastenings c of paper, moistenin a reinforcing strip and applying it to sai web centrally thereof, splitting the strip and web, stapling across the split at intervals, and severing a section of the web containing one or more staples.

6. Process of producing sticker fastenings which consists in feeding a gummed web paper, applying av reinforcing strip centrally thereto, splitting the strip and web, inserting staples through the same across the split, clinching the staples, and severing a section of web containingone or more clinched staples.

7. Process of producing sticker fastenings` which consists in drawing a gummed web of paper from a roll, drawing a reinforcing strip from a roll, moistening one side of said strip, pressing the moistened strip upon the gummed side of the web along the middle of the same, splitting the united web and strip centrally, driving staples through. them at intervals across the split, clamping the staple legs against the web, and cutting the stapled web into transverse sections constituting the completed article. 'f 

